15 inch gaming laptop for college

andrasveto

Honorable
Apr 10, 2012
3
0
10,510
I'm looking to buy a 15" gaming laptop that I could also bring with me to classes for college.

1. What is your budget? ~$1500

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15 inches (or 15.4)

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1920x1080

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? relatively portable, I need to be able to take it to classes

5. How much battery life do you need? 2 hours or so

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? I play all kinds, but I always play TF2. I don't really care about graphics settings, as long as I can run any game with at least 60 frames at 1080p

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Mainly gaming, schoolwork, and programming

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 256 gigs or so

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 4 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD read/write

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. I've had bad experiences with Asus in the past so I'd rather not try them atm, any other brands are fine as long as their customer support and hardware is reliable, I need to be able to use that laptop constantly

13. What country do you live in? US of A
 
Solution
Wait for the Lenovo Y580. You won't be disappointed... Ivy Bridge with a GT 650m or 660m (hasn't been confirmed, but either one would rock)? Sold.

Sony VAIO S series has the ability to have an AMD 6630m, which is pretty good, and a 1920x1080 LED in a 15.5" chassis. ~4lbs, $1k-$1.5k

Also check out the Sony VAIO Z series. They're ultra portable and have a docking station that has an external graphics card (6650m) that connects on a cable operates on a derivative of Thunderbolt so it's as if it were onboard. Otherwise, it's a 13" 3lb ultrabook. It is probably more pricy than you intend, and it's not got the resolution and the size you want, but it is ultimately a fantastic machine.

nbelote

Distinguished
Oct 5, 2009
221
0
18,860
Wait for the Lenovo Y580. You won't be disappointed... Ivy Bridge with a GT 650m or 660m (hasn't been confirmed, but either one would rock)? Sold.

Sony VAIO S series has the ability to have an AMD 6630m, which is pretty good, and a 1920x1080 LED in a 15.5" chassis. ~4lbs, $1k-$1.5k

Also check out the Sony VAIO Z series. They're ultra portable and have a docking station that has an external graphics card (6650m) that connects on a cable operates on a derivative of Thunderbolt so it's as if it were onboard. Otherwise, it's a 13" 3lb ultrabook. It is probably more pricy than you intend, and it's not got the resolution and the size you want, but it is ultimately a fantastic machine.
 
Solution

andrasveto

Honorable
Apr 10, 2012
3
0
10,510
I explicitly said I'm not interested in Asus, but thanks.

That Y580 looks pretty good, I'll definitely look into it more.

However, the Z series looks like it's exactly what I need. I won't be doing anything too intensive in classes, and the reduced weight should be great. The price is a bit steep but I'll definitely be looking into it. I notice that it can actually have 1080p, although I think that would be a waste on such a small screen.

Edit: I decided that I'm going to wait for the Y580, it looks perfect and I have just enough time to get it once it comes out. Thanks for the recommendation.
 

thomasf94

Honorable
Apr 10, 2012
27
0
10,580



Whoops.. yeah sorry. My bad. I just noticed that.